Tag: Elon Musk

Child at Roadster Event

Roadster: Maximize Happiness for the General Population

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(McGregor, Texas) I drove to the outskirts of the Tesla Roadster reveal last night to be close to the historic event, the last of the cars Tesla will build that will be designed for manual driving by a human. Elon said, “Life cannot just be about solving one miserable problem after another. There need to be things that inspire you, that make you glad to wake up in the morning”.

Elon Musk has long been a man who wants to max out happiness for the general population. The Roadster does that, and you can bet people will love going to future events that feature this wild car with its thruster and suction stunts. I recall as a kid people lining up in stadiums to see Evel Knievel jump over a line of cars. People will be beyond excited to see the Tesla Roadster do this.

One writer, M.C.A. Hogarth, put it well when he said that not everything is about whether you can imagine it being useful to you. He is correct: with art, things are lovingly created simply for the act of making them.

Hogarth goes on to write (and I reference him because Elon Musk chose to highlight his words): “we do not know if what we’ll learn will make your toaster work better and you will never realize it because you take for granted that things get better without thinking through how that happens”.

Elon knows that he will not inspire people with everyday toasters, or a “Tesla” phone, but he knows he CAN inspire some kid, somewhere, with a real car that can drive upside down. This is the reason for the Roadster.

Despite the grind of daily life and the routines and obligations that kids often have, I know there will be many kids who will see the videos shared from the event by Tesla, and even by people I consider friends from the Tesla community. These people’s videos will start to spread, and everybody will see them.

When Elon said that he knew we would need real people there to prove it really happened, he was right. This DID happen last night. It WAS reality. It was super cool. It WILL inspire minds and bring them great excitement. What a huge gift to us all. Thanks to Elon Musk. He was once a kid too, who found excitement. Thankfully he made it to the US where he could build great things like this Roadster.

Adding a compilation of posts here by people who shared their videos from their iphones from the actual event!

From Elon Musk himself!

From Sawyer Merritt (volume UP for the crowd’s priceless reactions!):

From Ben Schaffer (darling of the Tesla community, from UnPlugged Tesla):

From John Stringer (seeing this car up close, in all its brilliancy):

From Alexandra Merz (what a kind lady, who also appeared on my recent podcast!):

Bret Winton captured the childlike wonder at the event, in this spontaneous video that I reshared, and has over 400,000 views at time of publishing!

More from Sawyer Merritt, (let’s climb into the Roadster with Sawyer):

Here are newly released images of the Roadster (there are many more) for media usage by the Tesla Media website, below shows off the Gold Glazed tinted glass.

Tesla Roadster has Gold Glazed tinted glass mimicking the copper coating of spacesuit visors, with subtle titanium accents. Image courtesy Tesla, Inc.

Above shows the Ano White paint, which is an aerospace-derived finish w/ UV & cryogenic protection, electrostatic dissipation & corrosion resistance. Concealed headlights are another asset, bringing a a minimalist, highly technical form. My old Mazda RX7 had this and seeing it on the Roadster just makes perfect sense!

Below is a close-up of the super light wheels w/ thin spokes that reinforce structural strength when earthbound.

Thanks for reading. I’m Gail Alfar. I write about Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, and the things that make the future feel real. You can find me on X at @gailalfaratx and on Gail’s Tesla Podcast.

This is an independent personal account. All opinions are my own.

Interior of the Roadster

For the interior of the Roadster, Tesla explains, “Interior– Ultrawhite interior w/ gray microsuede detailing & seat bolsters for added grip – Manual controls & a fixed seat position reduce overall vehicle mass – Lightweight, high-strength materials throughout, including magnesium, titanium & carbon fiber help reduce it further This allows Roadster to respond to driver inputs almost instantly”.

Gail’s Tesla Podcast Episode 193: Conversation with Alexandra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama)

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Austin, Texas. Episode 193 of Gail’s Tesla Podcast is now live.

This is a conversation with Alexandra Merz, known to many in the Tesla community as @TeslaBoomerMama. We talked about what people would gain if they understood Elon Musk better. This is one of my favorite conversations.

In the episode we cover her perspective as a long-time retail shareholder, her background, and the practical value of looking past the noise to see the actual work.

Outline summary:

  • Opening conversation while riding in Austin
  • Alexandra’s path and interest in Tesla
  • Discussion of what clearer understanding of Elon Musk changes for people (retail shareholders, the public, and the mission)
  • Reflections on Tesla beyond the car company framing
  • Personal notes and shared observations from the ride

Watch the full episode here (or tap the X post for the video with captions):

These conversations keep focusing on the real progress and the people who follow it closely.

Jessica Tetreau on Brownsville Matriarch Mary Yturria and the Land That Became Part of SpaceX’s Water Deal

Gail’s Tesla Podcast Episode 190: Interview with Jessica Tetreau on Brownsville Matriarch Mary Yturria and the Land That Became Part of SpaceX’s Water Deal

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Episode 190 of Gail’s Tesla Podcast is now live.

This is an interview with Jessica Tetreau of Brownsville. She shares the story of Mary Yturria, the longtime Brownsville philanthropist and matriarch who once owned a portion of the land SpaceX recently acquired.

That acquisition is part of the agreement in which SpaceX is contributing up to $220 million toward major water and wastewater infrastructure projects for the city and its people, expected to add roughly 18 million gallons of pure, healthy water per day of capacity.

In this warm conversation, Jessica talks about her friendship with Mary Yturria (who lived into her late 90s), visiting the landfill area herself, and her perspective as a local business owner (Car Wash Plus) on the changes and the water solution for Brownsville.

Outline summary of the episode:

  • Opening in the Cybercab / ride context
  • Jessica’s personal connection to Mary Yturria: friendship, lunches, and admiration for her as a Brownsville matriarch
  • Mary Yturria’s ownership of part of the land near the landfill / Port of Brownsville area that SpaceX acquired
  • Jessica’s own visit to the landfill site and observations
  • Local viewpoint on SpaceX’s water infrastructure commitment (wastewater reclamation + Southmost Regional Water Authority expansion) in exchange for the jurisdictional change
  • Discussion of the practical impact on Brownsville’s water future and community response
  • Closing reflections on Elon/SpaceX engineers and excitement about the outcome

Watch the full episode here (or tap the X post for the video with captions):

These conversations capture real South Texas local history intersecting with the progress SpaceX is delivering.

Quatre heures, une marionnette, et une ovation pour du ragot recyclé

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

J’écoute Elon en entier depuis des années, pas en extraits de quatre minutes. Alors quand le Washington Post trouve le film vénitien d’Alex Gibney « terrifiant » et le peint en « escroc mégalomane avec un complexe de dieu », et que le Guardian le juge « banal », « sans charme » et « grand gamin mal élevé », je fais ce que ferait n’importe qui de sensé. Je reviens à la longue liste de ce qu’Elon Musk livre vraiment.

La liste n’inclut pas un concours de festival. Il a bien aidé à produire Thank You for Smoking comme producteur exécutif. Il a aussi joué son propre rôle dans Iron Man 2. Mignon. Ce n’est pas le métier.

La liste, c’est des boosters réutilisables qui se posent sur des barges, des terminaux Starlink là où la fibre n’est jamais arrivée, dix millions de Tesla sorties d’usine, et des voitures que les gens continuent d’acheter. Gibney n’a pas réussi à mettre Elon devant la caméra, alors il a fabriqué une marionnette numérique pour réciter de vieilles citations, comme une machine de karaoké hantée. Elon a dit non à l’interview. Gibney a quand même animé un sosie et l’a présenté dans la grande salle de Venise, en espérant que les applaudissements courraient plus vite que les usines.

Gibney vend un montage de quatre heures d’ex-compagnes, de cofondateurs évincés et d’applaudissements de festival comme si une ovation remplaçait un crash-test. Le Guardian peut le trouver ennuyeux le lundi, puis le mercredi le coller à une élection allemande comme s’il avait lui-même bourré les urnes. Les médias traditionnels fonctionnent comme ça. D’abord l’histoire. Ensuite le matériel.

Ma règle est simple, et elle n’a pas bougé depuis que j’écris contre le FUD. Regardez le matériel. Comptez les lancements. Prenez un Cybercab ici, à Austin. Si un documentaire a besoin d’un fantôme d’IA et d’une ovation debout pour prouver qu’Elon Musk est ennuyeux, le fantôme n’a qu’à pointer à la chaîne. La chaîne, elle, tourne.

The Associated Press spreads its framing of Elon Musk across hundreds of outlets, giving the narrative an appearance of neutrality and legitimacy.

Elon Musk: The Associated Press Is More Dangerous Than The Guardian

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While The Guardian is the most openly aggressive against Elon Musk, the AP is more dangerous in some ways because its framing gets treated as neutral fact and spreads everywhere. 

On June 19, Elon posted one clear sentence:

“The reason they call me a Nazi is to encourage people to murder me.”

Just today, it was reported that Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna accused Elon Musk of sentencing 4.5 million children around the world to death by cutting USAID funding.

This is the kind of extreme, reckless lie that gets normalized when media outlets like the Associated Press repeatedly frame Elon as a dangerous global actor.

The AP may not shout the accusations itself, but it helps sow the seeds for the kind of hatred and lies that people like Ro Khanna then feel comfortable peddling in public.

While the Guardian in the UK has been the loudest, the Associated Press has been the most effective at spreading dangerous framing of Elon. 

In 2025, the AP published a report that accused Elon of “elevating far-right figures on three continents.” The piece presented his interactions with various political leaders and voices as evidence of him boosting extremism around the world. Because the AP is a wire service, that language didn’t stay in one place. It was picked up and republished by newspapers, local news sites, and broadcasters across the entire world.

This is how the narrative spreads without appearing extreme. When the AP frames Elon as systematically lifting up dangerous people, so it gives other outlets permission to go further. It turns political disagreements and platform decisions into so-called evidence of a global threat.

Defenders will say the AP is simply reporting on Elon’s political activity and holding a powerful person to account. That defense is easily dismantled. 

The AP piece purposely refrained from treating Elon’s support for certain elected leaders or his criticism of open borders and DEI as normal political positions held by millions of people. Instead it grouped them under the label of elevating “far-right figures.” This is the same tactic we’ve seen elsewhere. Legacy media takes real actions and statements, strips away context, and places them inside the most toxic category possible.

The damage comes from the reach. When a wire service runs this framing, it becomes background noise in newsrooms everywhere. Local reporters and editors treat it as established fact. Over time, the public gets trained to see Elon not as a businessman or free speech platform owner, but as someone who is actively making the world dangerous.

This fits the exact pattern Elon described. You do not need to scream “Nazi” in every headline to contribute to the environment he warned about. You can do it quietly by repeatedly linking someone to extremism through selective framing and wide distribution. The result is the same: the target starts to look like someone who deserves extreme opposition. This is how Charlie Kirk was killed. 

The AP may not seem as openly aggressive as The Guardian, but its role is just as useful to the overall effort if not more. The AP lends an appearance of neutrality while pushing the same core story that Elon and his platform represent a serious threat that must be confronted.

You can see how this works. One outlet pushes the strongest language. Another spreads a milder version of the same framing to a much wider audience. Together they build the permission structure that makes hostility toward Elon feel reasonable to violent people.

That is how the tactic operates in practice.

The Guardian’s June 2026 coverage repeatedly tied Elon Musk to racist violence and far-right extremism.

The Guardian Is Framing Elon Musk as a Threat — Here’s the Evidence

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The Guardian published two articles in June 2026 that directly linked Elon Musk to racist violence and far-right mobilization. This piece breaks down how their reporting follows a clear pattern of dehumanization.

On June 19, Elon Musk posted one clear sentence:

“The reason they call me a Nazi is to encourage people to murder me.”

Two days earlier, The Guardian published an editorial and a news article which demonstrate exactly how this works.

In a June 10 editorial, the Guardian published that after a stabbing in Northern Ireland, far-right agitators called crowds onto the streets. It named Tommy Robinson as one of them. Then it added Elon: “So was Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, whose platform helped mobilise racist fury.”

Then the article went further. It reminded readers that Elon once spoke at a rally organised by Robinson. It quoted Elon saying people should “fight back or you die” against uncontrolled migration, noted that he reposted the line, and called him “one especially powerful and ideologically fixated oligarch.” The Guardian (which is supposed to be the Guardian of the people) accused Elon of helping spread “a far-right worldview twisted with paranoia and racist hysteria” that is now moving from online to the streets. 

Another Guardian article published the same day carried the same message. It linked Elon and X to posts that supposedly incited violence in Belfast. It highlighted his reposts about fighting back and framed his platform as a driver of the unrest.

These are not careful reports, but they are designed to make you think they are. Meanwhile they directly tie Elon to racist violence and the spread of dangerous extremism.

A leaked internal document from the Center for Countering Digital Hate shows the same pattern in writing. The group, co-founded by Morgan McSweeney (Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff), listed “Kill Musk’s Twitter” as one of its top annual priorities, along with triggering UK and EU regulatory action against the platform. Screenshots of that document have been circulating. When people in and around the British government are openly planning to kill Elon’s platform, the Guardian’s framing stops looking like normal journalism and starts looking like part of the same effort.

Defenders claim The Guardian is just reporting on dangerous online activity and holding a powerful platform owner to account. That excuse and everything the Guardian writes about Elon is easily dismantled. 

The articles name Elon as a key person who helped mobilise racist fury. They reach back a year to one speech and treat his warnings about mass immigration as part of the violence. They ignore the actual stabbing that started the unrest and the years of failed migration policies that created the anger in the first place. The Guardian could easily do neutral reporting on dangerous posts. Instead  they are placing the blame for street violence on one man.

The demand for “accountability” is also selective. Elon’s platform allows strong speech after events like this. It also allows massive amounts of criticism of those same views. The real ask here is not accountability. It is pressure to censor the kind of opinions The Guardian dislikes.

This fits a clear pattern. The Guardian has already run pieces claiming Elon’s posts are “indiscernible from those of white supremacists.” Every few months they attach him to the worst possible labels and real-world unrest. The goal is always the same: make Elon look like a threat so extreme that normal rules no longer apply to him.

Elon said the Nazi label is used to encourage people to murder him. The Guardian’s two articles from June 10 show one way this happens. They don’t need to say the word “murder.” They only need to keep telling readers that Elon is helping spread racist violence and far-right hysteria. Once enough people accept that, the next step becomes easier for those who want to take it. 

It is clear as day to see what they are doing. They are not debating policy or platform rules. They are building a story that turns one man into the cause of violence so the label sticks and the hostility feels justified.

That is the tactic Elon named: “The reason they call me a Nazi is to encourage people to murder me.”

The Guardian is using it openly.

Elon Musk Interviewed by Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan: Full Verbatim Transcript (SpaceX IPO, Starlink & Multi-Planetary Future)

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June 5, 2026 — Elon Musk made a virtual appearance at a special JPMorgan investor event hosted by CEO Jamie Dimon at the bank’s global headquarters in New York as part of the SpaceX IPO Roadshow. Elon joined live (remotely) to discuss SpaceX’s upcoming IPO, the massive capital-intensive growth phase ahead, Starlink V3 and beyond, space-based AI data centers, harnessing “star power” for energy, the Moon-to-Mars roadmap, Starship reusability, Terafab chip ambitions, AI strategy with Grok, and building strong teams/culture. It was a wide-ranging, optimistic conversation about why now is the right time for SpaceX to go public and help make humanity multi-planetary.

Here is my full verbatim transcript (carefully stitched from the YouTube video with captions enabled, cross-checked against available sources including Singju Post for maximum accuracy and cleaned for readability while preserving natural speech patterns, repetitions, and tone):

Welcome and Maye Musk Introduction

Host: Elon, welcome to JP Morgan’s headquarters. You’re on the 51st floor, which is about the equivalent of nowhere near where you go generally in space, but as high as we can get in New York City. But before we get started with you and Jamie, we had a very special guest that wanted to welcome you here this afternoon. And so your mother, Maye Musk, is here to welcome you.

Elon Musk: Great.

Host: Maye, please stand up. I don’t think you can see me or everybody here.

Maye Musk: They can see you. Yes, he can. This is your part.

Elon Musk: I actually can’t see my mom, but I can hear her certainly. Okay.

Maye Musk: What I’d like to say is when you were 3 years old and I told people I have a genius son, they would roll their eyes… And then when you said you wanted to start with rockets, then I rolled my eyes. And then you did it. And so this is just a great party here and we’re celebrating.

Elon Musk: Sounds good. Love you so much.

Maye Musk: Love you too.

Host: One proud mama.

Jamie Dimon: So let me, Elon, welcome you. It’s a real privilege to have you here on this momentous occasion. It is new for us, but it’s an important thing — the trajectory of American innovation. We’re here live: 3,500 people, our top individual investors around the world in 100 branches. There are 350 people here, 3,500 around the country. This is a very unique thing, by the way, because Elon has spoken to me about democratizing finance. This is part of it — treating individual investors the same way institutions are treated and hedge funds and all those things. My view is it’s a wonderful thing to do. Elon, very brave by the way because I would never let my mother speak publicly when I was in the room. God knows what she would have said.

Elon Musk: God knows what she would have said. I had no idea she was there actually.

Jamie Dimon: Elon is the Edison of our time. I remember visiting Elon in Tesla like 15 years ago. A whole new way of building cars, vertical integration which had not been anything remote from what our car companies are doing. Now you have SpaceX. I visited the SpaceX factory in California and it’s exceptional to have more than 650 rockets. You told me one today putting satellites in space. You have 9,000, almost 10,000 Starlink satellites up there. Starlink 3 is coming which is a whole new generation which hopefully will replace some of these undersea cables. It’s been an extraordinary 24 years watching Elon grow over time and now making a massive leap into the future. So welcome. Elon, I have 10 questions for you. So I want to make sure I get to each one. Some of them came from folks here. They’re all important, but one just to start is: why SpaceX public now? Because you had choices. You didn’t have to. Why now?

Why Take SpaceX Public Now?

Elon Musk: Yeah. I’ve been asked for many years about taking SpaceX public. So it’s probably been, I don’t know, almost 10 years that people have been suggesting to me that I should take SpaceX public. We’ve been positive cash flow for quite a long time — I think since around 2014-2015 — and we’ve been self-funding. In fact, in our private equity rounds they actually have not been fundraising rounds. They’ve been liquidity rounds for investors and employees because we give everyone at the company stock, and SpaceX has actually bought back stock in most of our sort of funding events.

So what’s different about now is a number of things, but we are embarking on a significant growth phase — like a capital growth phase — where we’re going to put in orbit probably 100,000 satellites, or probably over 100,000 satellites just for communications. And these will be Version 3 and beyond versus Version 2 and Version 1 that are currently in orbit. Version 3 is, depending on how you count it, 10 to 20 times more capable than the Version 2 satellite. And there were three chips that the SpaceX chip design team taped out that are specific to this, that are far beyond state-of-the-art, which means it’s 100 times more bandwidth than the SpaceX Starlink system currently offers and also half the latency because the altitude will be about half.

I think it will actually be the highest bandwidth, lowest latency means of communicating. And the future with AI and robots is actually going to require a lot more bandwidth than we currently use. Because you can imagine what’s the bandwidth of a human? The peak bandwidth of a human is a few hundred bits per second, but bandwidth of a computer can be a trillion bits a second. So the appetite for bandwidth of AI and compute, AI and robots, is going to be enormous.

And then we’re also doing the AI data centers in space, which is another massive capital endeavor. But I think it’ll be the primary means by which AI can be expanded. It’s increasingly difficult to build power plants on the ground. There are very few people who want a power plant in their backyard. So if we wanted to, say, double the electricity usage of the United States, which is on average about 500 gigawatts, we would have to build about twice as many power plants, which I don’t think most communities are super excited about.

But actually, if we go to space, we can go far beyond the electricity generation of Earth. In fact, this is going to sound crazy, but you could actually increase harnessed energy by a factor of a million and still be using much less than a millionth of the Sun’s energy. Current human civilization uses much less than a trillionth of the Sun’s energy output, which is humbling to think about. We’re really a tiny dust mote in a vast darkness, and the Sun is enormous. The Sun is 99.8% of all mass in the solar system, and most of the remaining is Jupiter.

Sometimes people ask me — and I’m maybe going a little wide-ranging in this answer because you just asked me why you’re going public now, and I’m talking about the Sun’s power output. A bit of a long-winded answer. But it is important. Some of these things are important because people sometimes wonder what’s the future of energy generation. And I can say that it is absolutely solar power — or maybe a better word for solar power is star power. It’s the power of a star. And the crazy thing is that if you burnt all mass in the solar system that was not the Sun, the amount of energy produced by the Sun would still round up to 100%. Because the Sun is 99.8% of the mass of the solar system. Even if you teleported two more Jupiters from another solar system and burnt them too, the Sun would round up to 100%. It’s very much the Sun, and you could scale to a million times Earth’s economy in space in terms of harnessed power — which is a good proxy for economic output — and still be much less than a millionth of the Sun’s energy, which is humbling really to think about how tiny we are, and this is just one star among many. So I guess the TL;DR would be: we’re embarking on a massive new growth phase and we need capital for that.

Jamie Dimon: Okay. Number two. Another thing is the revenue — like I also feel pretty good about the revenue projections, but before, revenue was a little unstable, but now I feel like the revenue is much more predictable.

Elon Musk: Yeah.

Jamie Dimon: I always learn listening to you, I guarantee you. So I mean, people hear about multi-planetary species, travel to space — one of the most exciting ideas in human history. Can you explain the bridge that you speak about? I’ve heard you talk about from the Earth to the Moon to Mars.

Moon to Mars Roadmap

Elon Musk: Yeah. So you don’t necessarily have to go through the Moon to get to Mars. I just think that we can build a self-growing city on the Moon faster than we could do so on Mars. And there’s also the potential, if you say you want to scale far beyond what you can do from Earth, that because the Moon has no atmosphere and about 1/6th Earth’s gravity, you can use an electromagnetic accelerator — a rail gun or mass driver. Basically, you don’t need to use rockets to do AI data centers into deep space from the Moon. You can literally just shoot them like a rail gun type of thing. And you can manufacture the solar power and radiators on the Moon from Moon materials. That would allow scaling potentially to beyond a thousand terawatts a year, which is a truly staggering number. Like I think we can do probably somewhere around 1 terawatt per year of AI space compute from Earth, but we can do a thousand terawatts or more from the Moon. And like I said, we can also make a Moon base. And I think it would be pretty cool if you could vacation on the Moon. That would be the most epic vacation. Not everybody wants to go to the Moon, but I think a lot of people do. I think it would be pretty amazing — obviously provided you could do so safely and come back safely and everything — but I think that will be possible in the future. And then Mars is another step beyond that. Mars is a whole planet with gravity much closer to that of Earth. And it has an atmosphere, albeit thin. And if you warm up Mars, you could one day make Mars like Earth — meaning with liquid oceans and life and where you could walk outside without a space suit type of thing. So Mars is, I call it, a fixer-upper of a planet, but it’s got a lot of potential.

Key Takeaways

SpaceX IPO & Massive Growth Phase

  • SpaceX has been cash-flow positive and largely self-funding for years. Prior rounds focused on liquidity for employees and investors.
  • Going public now to fuel a huge capital-intensive expansion: 100,000+ Starlink satellites (V3+), space AI data centers, and multi-planetary infrastructure.

Starlink V3, Bandwidth & AI Future

  • V3 satellites offer dramatically higher capability, bandwidth, and lower latency.
  • Essential for the coming explosion in AI/robot compute demand.

Space Energy (“Star Power”) & Orbital AI Data Centers

  • Terrestrial power plant expansion faces huge social and practical limits.
  • Space-based solar and AI compute offer near-unlimited scaling potential.

Moon-to-Mars Roadmap

  • Moon as a faster path to self-sustaining presence and a launch platform for deep-space assets.
  • Mars as the ultimate long-term home with terraforming potential.

Starship, Chips & Broader Vision

  • Full rapid reusability on Starship is a historic milestone.
  • Vertical integration into advanced chip production (Terafab) to support orbital AI ambitions and reduce U.S. semiconductor vulnerabilities.

Elon’s Standout Quotes

  • “We’re really a tiny dust mote in a vast darkness… The Sun is 99.8% of all mass in the solar system.”
  • “It is absolutely solar power — or maybe a better word for solar power is star power. It’s the power of a star.”
  • “Version 3 is… 10 to 20 times more capable… 100 times more bandwidth.”
  • On the Moon: “I think it would be pretty cool if you could vacation on the Moon. That would be the most epic vacation.”
  • “Mars is a fixer-upper of a planet, but it’s got a lot of potential.”

My Take

I’m always struck by Elon’s generosity with his time and vision, even when it means late nights. The surprise appearance by Maye Musk was such a warm, human highlight — a proud mom moment that perfectly set the tone. This conversation really underscores that SpaceX going public isn’t just about rockets; it’s about scaling AI, energy, and making life multi-planetary. As someone who follows these developments closely from Austin, this one feels like another Elon Musk Master PLAN! Excited to see how the IPO roadshow and Starlink V3 progress unfold!

Elon Musk portant son célèbre t-shirt « Nuke Mars » observe le test de vol intégré réussi de Starship Version 3 (IFT-12) aux côtés des membres de l’équipe SpaceX, dont Jared en contrôle de mission.

Elon Musk : Un visionnaire sous le feu des critiques – Pourquoi les dernières attaques passent à côté de l’essentiel

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

Au cours des deux dernières semaines, certains médias français ont amplifié des récits dépeignant Elon Musk comme vaincu au tribunal contre OpenAI, embourbé dans des enquêtes judiciaires sur X, et « furieux » face aux choix de casting à Hollywood. Ces narratifs le présentent comme erratique ou problématique. Pourtant, un examen plus attentif révèle un schéma d’outrage sélectif contre l’un des bâtisseurs les plus ambitieux de l’humanité, tandis que ses entreprises réalisent des avancées historiques.

Le Procès OpenAI : Une Position Philosophique, Pas une Défaite

Elon a cofondé OpenAI avec une mission claire : une IA sûre et ouverte pour le bénéfice de l’humanité. Il a alerté tôt sur les dérives vers le profit et les systèmes fermés. Bien que la récente décision du jury soit décevante, elle n’efface pas la validité de ses préoccupations, surtout alors qu’OpenAI se précipite vers une IPO à but lucratif avec le soutien massif de Microsoft. Le procès d’Elon a mis en lumière de vraies questions de gouvernance. Elon a déjà annoncé qu’il ferait appel de la décision devant la Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals en Californie. (Les vrais visionnaires défient les intérêts puissants ; l’histoire leur donne souvent raison.)

L’Enquête Française sur X : Liberté d’Expression contre Application Sélective

L’enquête française sur X concernant la modération de contenus, avec menaces de mandats d’arrêt, cible Elon pour avoir ouvert la plateforme à des voix diverses. Elon s’est défendu publiquement contre ce qu’il perçoit comme un acharnement politique.

Les critiques ignorent commodément que, avant Elon Musk, Twitter prenait de l’argent et du soutien gouvernemental de la part des gouvernements en échange de la permission de la censure. En fait, c’était vraiment de la censure sournoise. Des documents internes des Twitter Files montrent que le FBI a versé plus de 3,4 millions de dollars à l’ancien Twitter (entre 2019 et début 2021) pour le temps passé par son équipe Safety, Content & Law Enforcement à traiter les demandes des forces de l’ordre liées à la modération de contenus. Voir les révélations documentées ici.

Elon a délibérément rompu avec ce modèle le jour où il a acquis l’entreprise en octobre 2022. Il a immédiatement mis fin à tous ces arrangements de remboursement gouvernementaux, démantelé les équipes dédiées SCALE de modération qui traitaient les paiements, et éliminé complètement la pratique. X fonctionne désormais avec une dépendance nulle à tout financement gouvernemental lié à la modération de contenus. La plateforme publie des rapports de transparence annuels détaillés montrant exactement comment elle gère les demandes des forces de l’ordre tout en priorisant une transparence maximale et la quête de vérité plutôt que la censure.

Polémiques Culturelles et Titres Outrés

Les rapports sur les critiques d’Elon concernant le casting dans L’Odyssée de Christopher Nolan ont été présentés comme « haineux ». Elon s’oppose depuis longtemps aux quotas DEI forcés qui privilégient l’identité au mérite et à l’intégrité narrative. Questionner les choix artistiques défend l’excellence dans le storytelling. L’indignation des médias français contraste vivement avec les éloges pour les exploits d’ingénierie d’Elon.

La Vraie Histoire : Un Progrès Inarrêtable

Pendant que les critiques de salon se concentrent sur les procès et les tweets, les entreprises d’Elon livrent des résultats :

  • SpaceX prépare une introduction en bourse historique, avec des valorisations vers les trillions et des timelines ambitieuses pour Mars. Des médias français comme Le Monde et Les Echos saluent à juste titre son caractère spectaculaire.
  • Le récent test de vol intégré de Starship Version 3 (IFT-12) a validé des avancées critiques dans l’architecture de propulsion Raptor 3, incluant des variantes à plus forte poussée au niveau de la mer et en version vide, un volume accru des réservoirs de propergol et des systèmes de contrôle de réaction améliorés, tout en démontrant un hot-staging nominal, le déploiement d’un satellite factice en orbite et une rentrée contrôlée de précision avec amerrissage. Ces résultats marquent un progrès décisif vers la réutilisabilité complète et rapide du système de lancement super-lourd de 18 millions de livres de poussée et les capacités de transfert de propergol en orbite nécessaires aux architectures durables lunaires et martiennes. La direction de la NASA et les principaux experts aérospatiaux ont publiquement salué les données de vol itératives et la maturation du système.
  • Tesla continue de renforcer sa position à la fois dans les véhicules électriques et dans le stockage d’énergie à l’échelle du réseau en France. L’entreprise déploie des systèmes de stockage par batterie Megapack à grande échelle, notamment le projet de 240 MW / 480 MWh à Cernay-lès-Reims avec TagEnergy et le projet de 100 MW / 200 MWh à Cheviré près de Nantes. Ces installations exploitent la plateforme de gestion énergétique Autobidder de Tesla pour l’optimisation du réseau en temps réel et la régulation de fréquence. Parallèlement, Tesla a atteint un jalon mondial avec l’activation de son 80 000e stall Supercharger sur une station V4 étendue majeure en France, dotée de canopées solaires et d’une architecture de charge haute puissance.
Elon Musk portant son célèbre t-shirt « Nuke Mars » observe le test de vol intégré réussi de Starship Version 3 (IFT-12) aux côtés des membres de l’équipe SpaceX, dont Jared en contrôle de mission.
Elon Musk portant son célèbre t-shirt « Nuke Mars » observe le test de vol intégré réussi de Starship Version 3 (IFT-12) aux côtés des membres de l’équipe SpaceX, dont Jared en contrôle de mission.

Il emploie des dizaines de milliers de personnes, a payé les impôts les plus élevés de l’histoire des États-Unis — plus de 11 milliards de dollars en une seule année — et SpaceX a effectué 165 lancements en 2025 seulement, acheminant plusieurs équipages de quatre astronautes chacun vers l’ISS via Dragon, tandis que la Chine n’en a envoyé aucun vers l’ISS et que la Russie n’en a acheminé qu’une poignée via Soyuz au cours des 24 derniers mois.

En fin de compte, les récits amplifiés par certains médias français au cours des deux dernières semaines continuent de dépeindre Elon Musk comme erratique ou problématique.

Pourtant, un examen plus attentif révèle un schéma d’outrage sélectif contre l’un des bâtisseurs les plus ambitieux de l’humanité, tandis que ses entreprises réalisent des avancées historiques.

elon musk, starship, ift-12, spacex, mission control, nuke mars, mars colonization, starship v3, rocket launch, elon musk starship, elon musk team, jared spacex, reusable rocket

Elon Musk: Visionary Under Fire – Why the Latest Attacks Miss the Bigger Picture

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

In the past two weeks, certain French outlets have amplified stories portraying Elon Musk as defeated in court against OpenAI, entangled in judicial probes over X, and “enraged” over Hollywood casting choices. These narratives paint him as erratic or problematic.

Yet a closer look reveals a pattern of selective outrage against one of humanity’s most ambitious builders, while his companies achieve historic breakthroughs.

The OpenAI Lawsuit: A Philosophical Stand, Not a Defeat

Elon co-founded OpenAI with a clear mission: safe, open AI for humanity’s benefit. He warned early about profit-driven shifts and closed systems. Although the recent jury decision is disappointing, it does not erase the validity of his concerns, especially as OpenAI races toward a for-profit IPO with massive Microsoft backing. Elon’s suit highlighted real governance questions.

Elon has already announced he will appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California. (True visionaries challenge powerful interests; history often vindicates them.)

French Investigation into X: Free Speech vs. Selective Enforcement

France’s probe into X over content moderation, with threats of warrants, targets Elon for platforming diverse voices. Elon has publicly defended against what he sees as politically motivated overreach.

Critics conveniently ignore that before Elon Musk, Twitter was taking some government money and support from governments in return for allowing censorship. In fact, it really was underhanded censorship. Internal documents from the Twitter Files show the FBI paid pre-Musk Twitter over $3.4 million (between 2019 and early 2021) for staff time processing law-enforcement and content-moderation requests through its Safety, Content & Law Enforcement division. See the documented revelations here.

Elon deliberately broke from this model the day he acquired the company in October 2022. He immediately ended all such government reimbursement arrangements, dismantled the dedicated SCALE moderation teams that had processed the payments, and eliminated the practice entirely. X now operates with zero reliance on any government funding tied to content moderation. The platform publishes detailed annual Transparency Reports showing exactly how it handles law-enforcement requests while prioritizing maximum transparency and truth-seeking over censorship.

Cultural Spats and “Outrage” Headlines

Reports of Elon criticizing casting in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey were framed as “hateful.” Elon has long opposed forced DEI quotas that prioritize identity over merit and storytelling integrity. Questioning artistic choices defends excellence in storytelling.

French media’s pearl-clutching contrasts sharply with praise for Elon’s engineering feats.

The Real Story: Unstoppable Progress

While armchair critics focus on lawsuits and tweets, Elon’s companies deliver:

  • SpaceX is preparing a landmark IPO, with valuations soaring toward trillions and ambitious Mars timelines. French outlets like Le Monde and Les Echos rightly call it spectacular.
  • The recent integrated flight test of Starship Version 3 (IFT-12) has validated critical advancements in the Raptor 3 propulsion architecture including higher-thrust sea-level and vacuum variants, increased propellant tank volume, and improved reaction-control systems while demonstrating nominal hot-staging, orbital dummy-satellite deployment, and a precision controlled re-entry splashdown. These results mark decisive progress toward rapid full reusability of the 18-million-pound-thrust super-heavy lift system and the in-orbit propellant-transfer capabilities required for sustainable lunar and Martian architectures. NASA leadership and leading aerospace experts have publicly commended the iterative flight data and system maturation.
  • Tesla continues to strengthen its position in both electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage in France. The company is deploying large-scale Megapack battery energy storage systems including the 240 MW / 480 MWh project in Cernay-lès-Reims with TagEnergy and the 100 MW / 200 MWh Cheviré project near Nantes. These installations leverage Tesla’s Autobidder energy management platform for real-time grid optimization and frequency regulation. In parallel, Tesla achieved a global milestone with the activation of its 80,000th Supercharger stall at a major expanded V4 station in France featuring solar canopies and high-power charging architecture.
elon musk, starship, ift-12, spacex, mission control, nuke mars, mars colonization, starship v3, rocket launch, elon musk starship, elon musk team, jared spacex, reusable rocket
Elon Musk in his iconic “Nuke Mars” t-shirt watches the successful Starship Version 3 (IFT-12) integrated flight test alongside SpaceX team members including Jared from mission control.

He employs tens of thousands, has paid the highest taxes of anyone in the history of the US — over $11 billion in a single year — and SpaceX has conducted 165 launches in 2025 alone, bringing multiple crews of four astronauts each to the ISS via Dragon, while China has brought up none to the ISS and Russia has brought up only a handful via Soyuz in the past 24 months.

Ultimately, the stories amplified by certain French outlets over the past two weeks continue to portray Elon Musk as erratic or problematic.

Yet a closer look reveals a pattern of selective outrage against one of humanity’s most ambitious builders, while his companies achieve historic breakthroughs.

Gail’s Tesla Podcast Episode 172: Zuby’s First Supervised FSD Ride in Austin – A Conversation That Went Viral (Over 1 Million Views!)

Gail AlfarLeave a comment

May 2026

This one went big.

Episode 172 with the one and only Zuby (@ZubyMusic) has already surpassed 1 million views on X — and for good reason. Fresh off a flight from Dubai, Zuby hopped into my Tesla for his very first supervised FSD (Full Self-Driving) experience in Austin. What started as an in-car chat quickly became one of the most engaging and widely shared conversations we’ve had.

We split it into two parts because the discussion was so rich. Part 1 covers his global perspective, culture shock, and a powerful take on the biggest myth about masculinity. Part 2 dives into free speech, what it was like meeting Elon Musk in the early days after the Twitter acquisition, and why he keeps his rap music “squeaky clean.”

Watch Part 1 here (the viral ride):

Watch Part 2 here (free speech, Elon, and clean rap):

Why This Episode Resonated So Strongly

Zuby brought a truly global lens to the table. Having lived across the UK, Saudi Arabia, and traveled extensively, he shared how different cultures shape our views — and how travel can be the ultimate cure for ignorance and narrow-mindedness.

His first reaction to FSD was priceless: pure amazement at watching the car drive itself while we chatted. “This would have been considered impossible even within our own lifetimes,” he noted. It was a beautiful reminder of how far the technology has come and how it feels to experience it for the first time.

The conversation on masculinity was especially powerful. Zuby challenged the modern narrative that masculinity itself is a problem. Instead, he argued that many issues attributed to “toxic masculinity” actually stem from an absence of healthy, channeled masculinity — and that boys need strong, positive male role models to thrive.

In Part 2, things got even more fascinating as he opened up about meeting Elon Musk shortly after the Twitter acquisition and his philosophy on creating clean, positive rap music in a genre often filled with negativity.

A Conversation That Hit Different

This episode felt special from the start. Zuby’s wisdom, humor, and no-nonsense perspective combined perfectly with the unique setting of cruising Austin streets on FSD. Listeners clearly felt it too — the views exploded, and the comments poured in with people loving the mix of tech wonder and deep life insights.

Whether you’re here for the FSD ride reactions, the cultural wisdom, or Zuby’s refreshing take on masculinity and free speech, this one delivers.

Join the Conversation

Have you watched Episode 172 yet? What stood out to you most — Zuby’s first FSD experience, his thoughts on masculinity, or his stories about meeting Elon?

Drop your thoughts in the comments below. I read every single one!

And if you haven’t subscribed or followed along yet, now’s the perfect time. This is exactly why I love doing these in-car podcasts — real conversations with remarkable people in remarkable settings.

Thank you to everyone who watched, shared, and engaged. Over a million views is wild, and I’m incredibly grateful.

Stay curious. Stay adventurous. And keep riding with us. 🚕✨

Zuby’s links:

  • X: @ZubyMusic
  • Podcast: Real Talk with Zuby

Tags: #Zuby #GailsTeslaPodcast #FSD #Tesla #Austin #Masculinity #FreeSpeech #ViralPodcast #Episode172

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